Tuface Idibia
HOW do you feel about your recent award at the MTV Africa Music awards?
I just thank God. I am happy about it and it means more challenge for meto keep up the standard and keep working.
You have been performing in a lot of shows lately, where do youget all the energy from?
Within Nigeria it’s all the fufu I eat you know….emm outside Nigeria naburger (Just kidding o!) I think when your job is what you love to do;it makes it easier for you. So I guess it’s because I love to perform onstage and I love music.
Your latest album, Unstoppable doesn’t seem to be doing as well as your previous albums, what do you think is responsible for this?
I can’t really say because the kind of deal I had on this album had todo with the marketers being responsible for the sales so na dem knowwhether e sell or e no sell. I can’t really say its moving in terms ofselling in the market but maybe the buzz is not like that of theprevious albums.
Why is that?
I can’t really place a finger on what the problem is..
Tuface Idibia
Do you think it has anything to do with you losing your touch?
I don’t think it’s the song, I think it is….. Wow! What do I think it isnow sef? (Pauses)
I think it is the promotional strategy that didn’t work well for thealbum.
You spent a lot of money establishing Hypertech, what happened to the label?
Nothing actually, it is just that right now I am trying to reorganizeand rearrange so that whatever Hypertech is going to be involved in nexttime will come out well. You know it was my first time setting up alabel and there are a whole lot of lessons I learnt. And I believe thatis the way of life, we learn in order to grow.
Can you outline some of the wrong steps you made as regards Hypertech?
I am not going to answer all that. It is a baby company and like I said,the promotion did not flourish as expected.
Why did you go back to Now music?
I think they are capable to do the job because I have worked with thembefore and I think they will be able to carry me to where I am going interms of management.
There were speculations that R. Kelly denied featuring on your song entitled Flex, what do you have to say about that?
Let me just put it this way; R-Kelly has not sued me, so let anybody notsay anything. That is the only thing I have to say because it is now asif I have to start defending. Let whoever said R-Kelly said that showme a tape or something.
Tuface Idibia
But you did feature R-Kelly, didn’t you?
Yeah. There was a collabo and whoever is trying to say there wasn’t justwant to rubbish my name. They are tired of talking about the baby mamaissue and they want to use something else to tarnish my image. It isjust the work of some people who are trying to spoil my name.
Now that a lot of people believe the rumour, don’t you think you should have R. Kelly officially make a statement about it?
Well, don’t worry, I am working on it. I am going to do something aboutthat soon. I will just say father, forgive them for they don’t know whatthey are talking about.
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now, I am packaging a Disc Jockey master mix. I am trying to pick aDJ that can use my music and do the best mix. That is what I am doingright now and it will be ready next month. And I am still celebrating myten years on the scene and there are a couple of events lined up forthat. I did one in Abuja and I am doing one in Bayelsa next month aswell. There is a whole lot I am coming up with but I can’t really talkabout them now because they are still in the pipeline. When e don done, Igo let una know.
I am working on another album right now and I am preparing for the UK release of Unstoppable.
Do you think the album will do better there than it is doing here?
It is doing better there. Many Nigerians told me that the songs are notNigerian enough. And I don’t know what that means. They say they are notcommercial; they said why I didn’t do something like what the boys aredoing right now. So I am like, the thing wey the boys dey do now, who doam before the boys dey do am? Some people just want you to remain aNigerian artiste; they don’t want you to cut across to the other partsof the world. I have heard it a lot that the album is not Nigerianenough and maybe that is why they are not playing it.
Examining your other albums and this particular one, did you do the same things you did?
I will say almost the same thing. Not really the same but its still me. Iwill say the only difference is one or two styles of music I introducedon the album because I did some afro beats and I didn’t do so manysinging songs.
What do you think about the Nigerian music industry?
The industry is still in a little bit of chaos in terms of copyrightlaws, in terms of combating piracy and artistes getting their properdues. I think it is still a little bit unstable but in terms of growth,creativity and awareness, in Nigeria, the music industry is growingfast. It is like that everywhere in the world; you have the verytalented artistes, you have the business minded artistes that don’tnecessarily need to be talented and you have those that don’t have boththe business and the talent.
They don’t have any business in the show. And then in terms of audience,you have people who respect good music in Nigeria and we have those whojust want to party without listening to lyrics and then we have thosethat don’t have respect for Nigerian artistes, they only respect foreignartistes. Nigerians easily put people aside. We have a lot of great oldschool artistes who no one talks about anymore.
Tuface
People just come up today to say they are this and that whereas there are people who have been there from the outset and they really did alot of work in the industry and nobody talks about them today. I havenever seen any radio DJ come on air and play old school songs alongsidewhat we have now. But the way it is, when new artistes come up, theyjust sideline the older ones. When 2face Idibia came on board, everybodyforgot about older artistes such as Onyeka Onwenu and Sunny Ade. Ithink that thing is one thing that is really bad in terms of respect forartistes. The way dem dey forget old school artiste dey very unfair. Nomatta wetin the person do, Na only the person mate dey celebrate amsome time. In all, the music industry is growing pretty fast right now.
Recently at the Arthur Guinness Concert, P-Square created a scene inyour defence, what is your take on the matter?
We actually came back and some people tried to disrespect us. Theyalways disrespect Nigerian artistes when it comes to stuff like that. Itis not necessarily Guinness; it’s the people they employed. You knowthey employ some agencies to handle stuff sometimes and these peoplejust disrespect Nigerian artistes.
And the Guinness staff actually came to apologize to us. That was whymyself and P-Square came back on stage to perform. I will advice bigcompanies to tell those who run the agencies they hire to stopdisrespecting Nigerian artistes. I left the Guinness show but themembers of staff who understood what went wrong, came after me andpleaded for me to come back.
Why do you think these agencies disrespect Nigerian artistes?
It is because they tend to look at us on their own level and see foreignartistes in a higher level than we are. It’s just like when you say aprophet is not respected in his home. They want to impress foreignartistes when they come to Nigeria. They want to kiss their butts orsomething in that line. When they have shows like that, Nigerianartistes also make demands but everything they would prepare would bejust for the foreign artistes. For instance, I made demands for my ownbackstage arrangement and on that day, I come to the venue of the showand they have a general backstage for all the Nigerian artistes and theyhave one particular area for the foreign artistes. And then sometimes,even the area that is created for the Nigerian artistes, when theforeign artiste come, they deny Nigerian artiste access to the place.Although sometimes, some artistes do not make these demands when we getto the venue of the show, they complain that they are being maltreatedmeanwhile in their rider they did not make these demands. Even those ofus who make these demands are not even satisfied and there areconfrontations and one just decides to refrain from displaying andmaking trouble.
Who was 2face as a fourteen year old teenager?
I was very shy but very playful, very friendly but extremely shy.
Are you still shy?
Yes I am but I can’t afford to be shy anymore because of the line ofbusiness I am in.
So how are you taking in all your fame?
Well I just look at it like I am still me. The fact that people know medoesn’t change anything.
Do you think you would have made it this big if you were still a member of Plantation Boys?
It is only God and time that can answer that. Maybe I would have grownbigger than this, maybe not. I can’t really say.
Are you guys planning a come back?
Right now, no! But we are thinking about
Are you planning to tie the knots anytime soon?
Hmm…I am already married o!
Really when did you do that and why did you hide it?
I no want make una know o!
Who did you marry?
Una no go let the person rest so….
Is it Annie Macaulay?
Don’t worry, you go know when we don tire to keep am secret. (Laughs)
So you are no more in the market?
No I am not o!
For the records, how many kids do you have?
Dem plenty o. I am still counting sef.
Don’t you think your having kids here and there will affect your career negatively?
One thing is that we are in Africa; it depends on which angle you arelooking at it from. Polygamy is a normal thing in Africa. I am nottrying to say anyone should do like I did; it’s a matter of how you wantto live your own life. What I did was the noblest thing I could havedone in that situation. I don’t care about what anybody thinks about me.I just know that I didn’t kill anyone and I did not commit any crimeand I did the right thing given the situation. So, however anybody looksat it is a matter of opinion. If they want to crucify me for it, noproblem, I go take care of my pikin them.
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